President Barack Obama places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unkowns at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day

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President Barack Obama speaks during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia

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Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and President Barack Obama, stand as the National Anthem is played during a Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery

President Obama on Monday honored all the Americans who have given their lives for their country, from the Civil War of a century-and-a-half ago to the Afghanistan war that is wrapping up this year. In Memorial Day remarks delivered a day after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, Obama said the U.S. troops there “are coming home” from the conflict that began a month after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to an end,” Obama said during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. During his speech, Obama praised veterans from all the nation’s wars. “Everything that we hold precious in this country was made possible by Americans who gave their all,” Obama said.

"Let us never forget their service and always be worthy of the sacrifices made in our name." —President Obama #MemorialDay

The president delivered his Memorial Day speech just four hours after his return to the White House. During his Sunday trip to Afghanistan, Obama received a briefing from commanders at Bagram Air Force, spoke at a rally for the troops, and visited wounded warriors at the base hospital. Shortly after arriving back at the White House early Monday morning, Obama hosted a Memorial Day breakfast. Guests included senior members of the military leadership, as well as veterans’ and military families’ organizations. Obama then traveled to the Arlington cemetery, where he placed the traditional wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, stand with children of fallen service members who traveled to Washington to participate in the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) 20th Annual Good Grief Camp

President Barack Obama and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, pause after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama wave to members of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), for people who have a family members who died in the military, after President Obama spoke during a Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery

From the bottom of the previous thread, something I don’t want anyone to miss …

Former US secretary of state Albright: Putin lies to Russian people ‘on an hourly basis’

“Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, on May 26 castigated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dishonesty about events in Ukraine and the United States’ role in supporting Ukraine’s fledgling democracy.

“The people of Russia need to know they are being lied to on an hourly basis by their president,” Albright told journalists in Kyiv on May 26. “I find it very hard to understand much of anything of what Vladimir Putin is saying. Anybody that can say the dissolution of the Soviet Union is the greatest tragedy of the 20th century is not operating with facts. There were two world wars in which millions of people were killed, among them Russians. So it I think it is insulting what he has said to all of our historical knowledge.”

Albright has been in Kyiv for several days in her role as chairman of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based international nongovernmental organization that promotes democracy, human rights and fair elections in many nations of the world. She was in Kyiv leading an NDI election observation mission, which gave high marks to the May 25 vote. “By conducting a generally well-run presidential election in the face of significant challenges, Ukrainians achieved a democratic milestone,” NDI concluded.”

These are chilling observations, put firmly into place by Albright. I’m very glad she was wearing her Angel brooch. There must be legions of Angels all around the Ukrainian people, helping with their strength of Spirit.

Yes, she is, Bob, and she does not mince words in describing Putin’s clear insanity. Putin’s megalomania makes a mockery of all that was endured in the 20th century, the wars themselves, the Holocaust and the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention the millions who suffered under the authoritarian regimes in Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China. I don’t know how anyone in the world can hear this Russian leader and not think he has lost his mind. I now believe that Russia will be doomed as long as this maniac has any power. He is leading that country down a very dark path that will make his own leadership one of the great tragedies in Russian history.

“I now believe that Russia will be doomed as long as this maniac has any power. He is leading that country down a very dark path that will make his own leadership one of the great tragedies in Russian history.”

(reposted from previous threat)
My father died ten years ago at the age of 79. He entered the marine corps by lying about his age at 16 (his parents lied too). By the time he was 19 he was in the worst fighting in the Pacific during WWII. He fought in the battle of Bloody Nose Ridge on the island of Pelilu where most of his company was killed and wounded. He was one of five to walk away when they were relieved after holding out for days against waves of the enemy counter-attacking and getting cut off from supplies. Hand to hand combat. He received the Silver Star for bravery. And was wounded on Okinawa. He suffered terribly from PTSD and alcoholism. But in his 40s he got sober and eventually become an alcohol counselor. He started a detox and counseling program in the county where he lived and was then recruited by the VA to start an alcohol treatment program in the VA facility near where he lived. The things that had hurt him so badly, alcohol and violence, became in a way his means of transformation and helping other vets like himself who were damaged by war violence, PTSD, and alcoholism. My parents divorced when I was a child and we were estranged in my earlier years. But the last twenty years of his life we began going on an annual spiritual retreat together at a monastery and began just talking and listening to each other, and meditating together in silence. In the end we had become best friends and I held him in my arms at the moment of his death. Love and healing is stronger than violence and death.

Thinking of my own father, as I read your story, Bill R. So many similar experiences. God bless our veterans, from every war, changed forever. Whether we were brave enough to serve or not, whether we had dads or loved ones who served, on this Memorial Day we thank them all ~ and especially miss all comrades-in-arms who didn’t come back home.

Bill, that is a powerful story of your father and a testament to his inner strength. That “the things that hurt him became his means of transformation” shows the depth of his character. You were fortunate to have those twenty years together. And he was fortunate to have a son lovingly carry on his memory.

Bill, what you wrote is powerful in so many ways. Thank you. As I commented on the previous thread, I firmly believe what you said: “Love and healing is stronger than violence and death.”
The way you and your father found your ways to each other is beautiful…..I know you are so glad you both accomplished this healing for each other.

Thank you for sharing this Bill R. So beautiful that your dad was able to recover and use that recovery to help others and to heal and deepen the relationship between the two of you. I relate to your story for many reasons. My own father’s illness was a transformative experience for him and our relationship was healed in the last years of his life. I still talk to him through my heart (as I imagine you also do with your father). Love is absolutely stronger than death!

Thank you for the kind words, friends. I am now 65 years old. And the older I get the more I become aware that, especially at this stage of life so much healing is possible for us, while there still is life. There is one more story about my father that I want to share with you some time today. It’s about an extraordinary experience he had of spiritual healing from his own participation in killing and violence later in his life. My father, after he had been wounded on Okinawa and convalesced on Guam, he was put on a hospital ship back to the states. He recalls when they reached San Francisco harbor, he had this overwhelming thought and a powerful intention. It was this, he had seen and participated in the worst cruelty and violence that humans can inflict on one another. He made a vow that he would spend the rest of his life learning to become a kind person. I believe that vow that he made propelled him on the journey of healing that he took, and opened him to these experiences he had later in life, and his relationship with me.

Although he wouldn’t care if he received the credit, former Senator (now Secretary of Defense) Chuck Hagel had a hand in introducing legislation to call for a National Moment of Remembrance, each Memorial Day … coming up at 3 p.m. local time.

Nerdy, you have been inspired this whole weekend and brought us so many moments of remembrance and tears as well as joy and awe in our president that it’s really overwhelming. I shudder to think how ill informed we would all be without you and Chips. We have been blessed like no other people in any generation to live this presidency in the here and now because every moment of this extraordinary time has been covered on this site. It was a lucky day for all of us when you decided to share your very awesome talents with us.

I got too much Indian blood; that stuff turns to fire water and then I get fired up, and I’m an Aries so I really need don’t need extra fuel. :D
(speaking from personal experience and blurred memories).

I didn’t say I don’t have have a way – 8-) , just can’t handle the “juice”. I actually suffer from migraines, cluster headaches, and mystery headaches since and during my time in the service, (officially disabled at 60%, my case with the VA for an increase has been pending for +7 yrs). I am officially a conundrum, so designated by the NIH. Story of my life, nothing typical about me. But I have no complaints about my medical care as a veteran. Now while I was active duty, they misdiagnosed a blood infection and threatened to amputate my right arm so I stayed as far away from the Va as I could, until they were my only recourse. Now I have to give myself Imitrex injections which I know I could not otherwise afford.

Awww! That’s the shits…..At least you got the VA to acknowledge your claims. They won’t even acknowledge that I was in combat in spite of my DD214 plus I get hit with a co-pay for drugs ’cause I made too much money prior to my retirement.

I know that there is a wide range of “war” stories. I had a good Rasta friend in Oakland, Ca. who was drafted and sent over to Vietnam as an “adviser”, was blown up pretty much soon after disembarking, lost several fingers, and was refused combat pay because he was not officially a combatant and we were not officially at war. He was one who climbed the fence at the White House and threw his purple heart over. But when I met him, he was no longer bitter and I admired his outlook and his great neck massages.

TMI…….neck massages indeed. I knew guys that were sent to Saigon from my boot camp company in ’58. Some didn’t make it out.
But it is what it is so I’m gonna hoist a JD for the whole mess……It’s still FUBAR!

Ha, see where your mind went! :D He was married with 10 children!! (I may be a lot of things, but home wrecker – nope!) I think he said he was paid a grand total of $3,000. But I’m not trying to rain on your celebrations so I will raise a glass in cyber space to you and wish fair weather and following seas. :)

If you can search the WP site’s FAQ or Help section so that others can see it when they click on the link, then I can include the tweet you sent to me, if I do a round-up of the day post.

If you can’t figure it out, I can still include your tweet in a post, but you’ll then have to keep answering multiple requests for approval so that people can see the pictures when they click on the link.

Finally finished watching my recording of the President’s remarks at Arlington. At the very end of the event, I think it was very telling that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made a gesture of warmth to VA Secretary Shinseki, by purposefully and pointedly seeking him out, shaking his hand, and embracing him.

No matter the details of the chronic problems with today’s VA, which need to be investigated thoroughly and fixed, I for one think we should also keep in mind that Eric Shinseki is a wounded warrior from the Vietnam era, with two combat tours (during one of the tours, he stepped on a land mine and was injured), and served in the military for 38 years. He was shunned in the Bush administration for speaking the truth about troop levels in Iraq, that Rumsfeld and others didn’t want to hear, for which I also applaud him.

From wiki: “As of 2009, General Shinseki was the highest-ranked Asian American in the history of the United States … Additionally, as of 2004, he is the highest-ranked Japanese American to have served in the United States Armed Forces.”

Again, I am not diminishing his responsibility for VA matters at present, but none of that erases his personal and honorable military service.

J’OB, I saw that and thought about making the comment, but you said it so exactly and so fitting for this great post that Nerdy W. has here. J’OB, when I saw Dennis go over as VA Sec. Shinseki was leaving, it was such a powerful moment. Dennis made sure that he reached out to the Sec. Dennis got Sec. Shinseki’s attention by walking over and tapping Sec. Shinseki on the shoulder. It was so moving because I was watching the expression on Sec. Shinseki’s face throughout the ceremony. It was like Dennis felt that space needed a touch from his gentle and powerful space which he also carries for the most caring and wonderful president, and Dennis did what was in his heart and space. If you can look at the tape again, watch it carefully and see all of the emotional goodness and respectfulness coming from both men. The tap, the eyes meeting, the words exchanged and the powerful but respectful embrace brought all of the tears flowing for me again this morning. It is something to see.

I love our Chief of Staff, Mr. Dennis McDonough, and he surely must have given Sec. Shinseki a beautiful and deep appreciation for the president’s compassionate and fairness in all things. It was so moving. It was not planned, I can assure all of us. Trust me, I know that much. But I do believe it was so appropriate and so beautifully expressed with the warmth, calmness, and respectfulness of wonderful and dear men and women that President Barack Obama has in his close circle or friends and those who work for and with him for all of us.

Thanks so much for sharing your observation on this, J’OB. You are so dear and speak with so much wisdom. Thank you. You just shared your goodness into the space of Sec. Shinseki today. Trust me. That is so powerful. HZ

HZ – It is you who captured the moment. I’m in tears, and I join you in being so very glad that we both saw the caring of one human being to another, from one gentleman to the other, on Memorial Day. And, yes, to me, as well, it represented President Obama’s goodness and his own sense of humanity. The same humanity he brings out in others. If only everyone could see it – but, for the moment, I’m glad those of us here understand.

I haven’t turned CNN on in months. Just an example for me of all media ant their worthelessness.

There is a rumor going around NYC that Jill Abrahamson of the NYTimes was fired because she advocated for a wall between editorial content and advertising money. This is a lot more likely than pay equity.

My thoughts and prayers to those who have fallen and their families while serving their country.

Thank you to all the veterans and your families, who come to TOD, for your service.

Chips, NW, LL, LP, amk, Zizi, and any other bt I may have missed thank you for keeping us so informed.

Bobfr, thank you for your service, and your amazing reporting on what’s happening in Int’l conflicts our media doesn’t report on. I learned so much from you about the conflict in Syria and events on the ground in the Ukraine.

“He’s our only child and he died on Friday. I’m 61 years old now. I’ll never have another child and he’s gone,” Martinez said through tears. “So the reason I’m doing this to try to see if we can do anything to make my son’s death mean something. Because that’s all we have got.”

“What kind of message does it send to the world when we have such a rudderless bunch of idiots in government? I can’t tell you how angry I am it’s just awful!”

He continued, growing more heated and hysterical with every word:

“What has changed? Have we learned nothing? These things are going to continue until somebody does something, so where the hell is the leadership? Where the hell are these people we elect to Congress that we spend so much money on? These people are getting rich sitting in Congress, what do they do? They don’t take care of our kids.
My kid died because nobody responded to what happened at Sandy Hook. Those parents lost little kids. It’s bad enough that I lost my 20-year-old, but I had 20 years with my son, that’s all I’ll have. But those people lost their children at six and seven years old. How do you think they feel? And who’s talking to them now? Who is doing anything for them now? Who is standing up for those kids that died back then in an elementary school? Why wasn’t something done? It’s outrageous!”